of "meet the press." david in 2008candidateobamatalkedabout this war as the war we must win. this time around he notedly talks about winding down the war. mitt romney didn't even mention it in his convention speech. why does this not seem to be a major interest in a campaign? >> the stakes are so high, lester, as you know being on the ground there. i think there's a couple of reasons. from the republican point of view, they want distance from the bush presidency, particularly the bush foreign policy of engagement in war in afghanistan and iraq. from the president's point of view, he wanted to narrow the focus, talk about al qaeda, defeat al qaeda. the crowning achievement killing osama bin laden. the nation building work in afghanistan is frankly something that became too difficult, too entrenched for the american people to keep up with. we are there longer than the soviets were there. i think there's a recognition that that job was simply too difficult, the notion that we were going to turn around the government, really be able to rebuild the country. there is a phrase that general pe